Folking muddy

Published on Fri 3 Aug 2012

Last week was the Cambridge Folk Festival. It was absolutely brilliant when I first started going in the late 90s but I've fallen out of love with it a bit in the last 5 or 6 years. I'm not sure if it's changed or I have. Probably a bit of both. The first time I went Nick Cave was playing. You wouldn't get that these days. On the other hand I'd have been dead excited about John Prine at one time and I couldn't even be bothered to go the night he was playing this year.

We got there just in time on the Thursday to see the end of Benjamin Francis Leftwich's offensively inoffensive set. I lasted exactly one line, which is pretty unfair of me really. I don't remember what it was, but it was enough to make me go "oh wow, sod this" and go over to look at mandolins (thankfully they were much more expensive than the one I got the other week). Next up were Dry The River, who I'd heard good things about and sounded a bit like Midlake. It wasn't really possible to get in the tent because the main stage wasn't open so there was most of a festival's worth of people trying to get into less than half a festival's worth of space - might have been better if I'd managed to because the sound wasn't really travelling well. It was the same story for Billy Bragg. I might have tried a bit harder if he'd been doing his own songs but, "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" excepted, I'm not really fussed about the Woody Guthrie stuff. He did a nicely updated version of "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward" at the end which, weirdly, we could hear better for being further away. It was good to run into some people I'd not seen for ages, and find out that Clannad managed to make an album called "Magical Ring", presumably with straight faces.

Like I said, I didn't make it down there on the Friday. Saturday had quite a few moments. Keb Mo was brilliant at doing what he does, and the guys in his band were all incredibly good at playing. It's always fun to see people who are good, even if it's not something you really like. The Unthanks with a brass band was absolutely beautiful for the first song or two, but then got a bit strange. Brass bands sound great but I guess need to be used sparingly. The Frank Sinatraesque number that some guy sang was particularly misjudged I thought. Not sure who he was either.

Nanci Griffith was really disappointing. I was concerned as soon as she came out dressed as Wally.

She was one of my favourites during my mid-90s country music phase and I still listen to her albums from time to time. I was hoping she'd do what Mary Chapin Carpenter did last year and steal the show, but she just played most of her new album. Which I will not be buying. We got two "hits" - "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" which I never really liked, and "Listen to the Radio" which was nice to hear, but I wish she'd done more. You would think you'd do your strongest material to a crowd who mostly don't know you. She's got some properly good songs. I'm probably not going to get to hear her do them now. Also I was a bit annoyed by this guy, who did that thing where you get someone to move out of your way by pretending you're going to the other side of the crowd and then stand right in front of them. Anyone recognise the back of this head?

Didn't really watch Roy Harper, and I kind of wish I had, because it sounded interesting but didn't really work at a distance. I was too busy getting the hottest jerk chicken known to man. It was still making its presence felt on Monday.

I was excited about seeing Clannad, because they did the theme tune to Robin of Sherwood. And they played a medley of that and some of the other incidental music from the series. "Ooh this is what they play when they're riding horses!" "Ooh the Normans are coming" we didn't get "Aww Marian's sad and they're shooting flaming arrows into the lake" which was probably my favourite, but it was still a treat. If I'd been a bit drunker I'd have probably just kept yelling out "Magical Ring" though.

The Proclaimers were headlining. I know it's not cool to like them, but I don't really understand how you can't. I chose them over Coldplay at Glastonbury 2005 and loved every minute of it then. And it was the same this time. Easily the most I smiled all weekend. Despite my view being blocked by a robot of some sort.

They played "Letter From America" "Cap In Hand" "Sunshine on Leith" "I'm on my way" "Then I Met You" and of course "I'm gonna be (500 Miles)" and loads more I know I'm sure. As I left the site there were isolated pockets of "da la lun dah" or whatever they sing for a good half an hour. That's how it's done Nanci.

On the Sunday I was playing keys for Annie at the nice new little stage they have for up and coming people. Before our turn we saw some very talented very young acts in the open mic they have there, and I went to watch my old mate Greg McDonald on the Club Tent. He's got folkier over the years, but I always really enjoy him. As soon as we finished our bit the heavens opened in biblical fashion. Lightning and hail. It had been relatively mud free up until that point but I guess the soil was wet just under the ground because huge puddles formed really quickly everywhere.

We were pinned down in one steamy tent or another for a few hours, but made it to the second stage for Anais Mitchell. I've seen her a couple of times before ( once supporting Ani DiFranco and once in New York) and not really liked it, but this time I was nearly in tears on several occasions. I don't know if I'm more used to her voice, or the songwriting has improved (all of the stuff of hers I've liked has come out in the last 2 years) but I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking before. Unquestionably the best thing I saw all weekend. "Young Man in America" was devastating and I've listened to it 10 times a day since. It completely made the festival for me. It also made me wonder if part of my problem with it has been that I haven't got near enough to much of the music to really get into it. All the festivals I've really loved (Way Out West, End of the Road, Primavera) in the last few years it's been easy to get near enough to be involved.

On our way out I saw a bit of Nic Jones. I'd not heard of him until everyone got excited about him playing at this. Apparently he was a leading light of the folk scene and an amazing guitar player until he was in a car accident. It's always moving seeing frail looking old guys singing and I will probably give his old albums a go when I stop being addicted to Anais Mitchell. He did a decent cover of Fake Plastic Trees. I'm not sure what I'd have thought about it all if I'd just seen him down the Folk Club without having heard the hype/legend though...

Anyway. I'm glad I got to go this year. Saw some good things.